Homeward Trust

Homeward Trust Edmonton is not a direct service provider in the traditional sense, but a strategic entity—a systems planning organization—dedicated to coordinating efforts to prevent, reduce, and ultimately end homelessness in the city of Edmonton, Canada. Its work is grounded in the foundational belief that everyone has the right to a home and that stable housing is the essential first step toward addressing the complex challenges faced by people who are homeless.

Since its establishment, Homeward Trust has been the leading force behind Edmonton’s commitment to a Housing First approach, transitioning the city’s response from managing the crisis of homelessness to implementing a proven, strategic solution. The organization acts as the central hub, channeling federal, provincial, and municipal funding; coordinating a vast network of community agencies; collecting critical data; and developing long-term strategies to ensure the system works efficiently to move individuals out of homelessness and into sustainable housing with appropriate supports.

The Power of Housing First

The cornerstone of Homeward Trust’s work is the internationally recognized Housing First model. This is an evidence-based approach that prioritizes providing immediate, stable housing to people who are homeless without preconditions, such as sobriety, employment, or adherence to mental health treatment.

This model fundamentally shifts the paradigm: instead of requiring someone to "get better" before they get a home, Housing First recognizes that housing is the foundation for recovery. Once housed, individuals are provided with flexible, individualized support services—including mental health care, addiction treatment, and employment assistance—to help them stabilize and rebuild their lives. These supports are tailored to each person’s needs and are entirely voluntary, affirming the person’s dignity and autonomy.

The success of this approach is measurable: stable housing drastically improves health outcomes, reduces interactions with the justice system, and decreases the burden on emergency services, ultimately proving to be more cost-effective than managing chronic homelessness.

Hidden homeless: Edmonton’s invisible crisis. Documentary by NCSA and BearPaw Research

System Planning and Coordination

Homeward Trust's primary function is system planning. Homelessness is a complex, cross-sectoral challenge involving mental health, justice, housing, health care, and social services. No single agency can solve it alone. Homeward Trust's role is to ensure all these disparate parts function as a cohesive whole:

1. Strategic Vision: Developing and continuously updating Edmonton’s 10-year plans to end homelessness, setting measurable goals, and ensuring alignment with municipal and federal strategies.
2. Funding Allocation: Managing and distributing funding to over 70 local agencies and community partners, ensuring resources are directed toward programs that adhere to Housing First principles and have the greatest impact.
3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Collecting, analyzing, and reporting on data, including the bi-annual Point-in-Time Count of people experiencing homelessness. This data is crucial for understanding the evolving demographics, needs, and complexities of the homeless population, ensuring policies and funding decisions are evidence-based.

This coordinated system has allowed Homeward Trust to track the housing outcomes of thousands of individuals since 2009, demonstrating consistent progress in reducing and preventing long-term homelessness.

Focused Programs and Vulnerable Populations

While maintaining a broad systems focus, Homeward Trust also directs resources toward specific programs designed to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations in Edmonton:

• Seniors' and Youth Supports: Recognizing that different age groups face unique challenges, dedicated programs provide age-appropriate, trauma-informed housing and support services. For youth, this often means addressing education, employment, and family reunification; for seniors, it means managing chronic health conditions and accessing specialized care.
• Indigenous Reconciliation: Homeward Trust recognizes the disproportionate overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples among the homeless population—a direct legacy of colonialism, residential schools, and systemic racism. The organization commits to meaningfully engaging and partnering with Indigenous communities and agencies, ensuring that housing and support programs are culturally sensitive, relevant, and restorative. This is highlighted by its explicit Land Acknowledgement and its commitment to integrating Truth and Reconciliation principles into its daily work.
• FIND – Furnishing Hope: A unique program that supports individuals moving out of homelessness and into their own apartments. FIND collects and distributes gently used furniture and household goods, transforming empty housing units into comfortable, dignified homes. This crucial step supports the psychological transition from life on the street or in a shelter to long-term tenancy.

The Ethical Commitment

Homeward Trust’s success is built not just on its data and systems, but on an ethical commitment to dignity and social justice. Its work acknowledges that homelessness is not a moral failing, but a breakdown of systems, and that a collective, determined effort is required to fix it.

By acting as a convener, a strategic thinker, and an accountable steward of resources, Homeward Trust Edmonton provides the essential framework for a community to move from crisis management to genuine, systemic change. They run a social enterprise called Find in Edmonton to help people who are homelessness with free furnishings. It empowers its partners to focus on service delivery, while it focuses on ensuring that the entire system functions effectively to achieve its ultimate goal: a future where homelessness is a rare, brief, and non-recurring experience for everyone.